Chairman & Interim COO

Kurt Uhlir serves as Chairman and Interim COO of The Made in America Movement.

Kurt is a fired-up entrepreneur, patented inventor, and operational leader.

He has been blessed to build and run businesses from start-up to over $500M annual revenue, assembled teams across six continents, an IPO ($880M), and multiple acquisitions. He is the lead inventor of disruptive technologies in 5 industries, with 16 granted patents, and has been asked to advise thousands of leaders, from startup founders to the President of the United States.

Kurt co-founded Sideqik – one of the first influencer marketing platforms. He assembled the initial team, oversaw the first three years of operations, and led their successful launch becoming the platform of record for marketing teams in eSports, gaming, and nutrition industries with top brands such as CBS Interactive, BenQ, Harmonix, HyperX, Hansgrohe, KontrolFreek, Supply.com, MuscleTech, and dozens of others.

Toss in a history of dozens of outside and internal startups/skunkworks, years moonlighting as a stuntman and model, some fun outside hobbies, and a strong bent for serving to know more of why he jumps out of bed every morning.

After running hard for the previous three years at Sideqik, he took almost 16 months to focus on intentionally resting, spending more time with his wife Valerie, and catching up with friends around the world.

Those that have worked with him have called him “a unique combination of a force of nature and a guy you’d like to hang out at a cabin with”. Kurt attributes much of his success to the relationships in his life and a strong culture of deliberate innovation.

Ideas and creativity are great, but execution is what makes your company succeed. – Kurt Uhlir

Ideas cannot grow unless there is 1) capital and 2) a team that knows how to execute them. – Kurt Uhlir

I would have saved several years when I was younger if someone had help shift my thinking to building out the solution and focusing on scaling before starting on the next idea. – Kurt Uhlir

I’ve built enough teams to see that it is the “operators” are the ones that keep the lights on and the company growing. – Kurt Uhlir

Find authentic demand before you invest too much in a solution. – Kurt Uhlir

People will buy things that they need combined with things that help them be more of who they are. The standard customer discovery process gets you part of the way there, but we think there’s a way to dig even deeper to uncover hidden opportunities. – Kurt Uhlir

When you find authentic demand, potential customers will fly across the country or not let you leave the room until you promise to build what you’re talking about. – Kurt Uhlir

It takes real effort to build a culture that values and allows for consistent innovation. – Kurt Uhlir

Mature companies grow by executing known business models and iterating on existing products, while early-stage companies are running more experiments to see what works in the market. – Kurt Uhlir

(When early-stage companies find) some traction, most companies fall into the same blindness that typically comes when needing to focus the team on scaling the business. – Kurt Uhlir

Leaders have to find ways to make sure their teams are asking questions to connect reality with real needs. That type of company culture leads to unexpected successes that can be built on for the next stage. – Kurt Uhlir

Transformational leaders cultivate the ability to get highly passionate about their choices and what they chose to work on. – Kurt Uhlir

We all want to succeed, but I believe the journey and how you get to the destination is more important than the destination itself. I want to be able to look back at the actions my team and I took and know that we’d be proud of everyone knowing how we got there. – Kurt Uhlir

Hiring people with a pattern of good character and people that are actively growing wins every time. – Kurt Uhlir

The concept behind the company can be incredible, and the product can be perfect, but that doesn’t matter if the people are not a good fit. – Kurt Uhlir

I want to be able to look back at the actions my team and I took and know that we’d be proud of everyone knowing how we got there. – Kurt Uhlir